#processjournal6

[brianmtran-blog]

Process Journal #6 - Selection

Reflect on the methods and techniques that your group used to select the most appropriate idea to address the problem you have defined and summarize those activities in a new post in your process journal. How did your group come to a consensus on what ideas to select? What were the discussions and debates over ideas?

Our team looked at different ways to approach the selection process. We looked back at our top choices that had potential like finding other passionate people to work on your projects, collaborative tools, and working or Wi-Fi on the go. There were other choices as well to choose from our brainstorming session, but they seemed to fit under the three overall choices. The team discussed different methods of going through the selection process from the class lecture like “What would happen if…” or Ranking and Weighing but there were some criteria that did not fit our objectives. 

The goal was to see if there was a need or want with our solution, so we decided to use the methods of Idea Potpourri or take a poll.

We were able to narrow down during the selection process by just communicating with each other and having a dialogue. From the three top choices, none of us were attached to a particular solution, which made it easy for us to incorporate Idea Potpourri. We noticed that people could collaborate together and on the go to work on their passion projects. 

Each idea could have worked by themselves but the three put together made it a stronger solution.

Next, Justin asked Alyssa and myself “what motivates the people you work with?” Although we work in different fields (Alyssa with tech and education, myself with enterprise and software), the similarities were that no matter what the person’s role was, their motivation came from wanting to create an impact. Justin suddenly started to talk about how the idea could be called imPACT, addressing the outcome Alyssa and myself stated earlier. Just talking to each other about what the solution would do in particular along with the target market, we realized that many age groups would benefit from this solution and not just Gen Z. This made us rethink what our problem statement was and how it could change.

To really understand whether there was a specific want or need for this solution, the team decided to create a poll. With this poll, we asked questions about what motivates them at work, their work environment preference, age group, tools that they use, and so on. Using our professional network, personal network, and school cohort, we were able to receive about 107 responses in only a few short days. 

Overall, the results from the poll told us that people do want to work on their passion projects, but with flexible work hours while developing their professional growth. 

This sparked a discussion on how we could narrow our scope and develop a solution that tailors to this need.

As a team, our vision has changed throughout the process. The good thing is that everyone on the team is open to pivoting and focusing our efforts to new ideas as we go through each exercise. It’ll be interesting to see where the next step takes us!